Transport in Greece

There will be no buses in Thessaloniki from Monday due to a strike until further notice by drivers at the local public transport company, OASTH, who say they have not been paid in more than a month.

OASTH employees’ representative Dimitris Tsermenidis said that the drivers have not been paid for 45 days and that the company is owed some 130 million euros by the state.

Commuters using Athens public transport can now benefit from free wireless Internet access at seven key stations on the metro and urban electric railway (ISAP) as part of a scheme that is to be extended across the network from the middle of next month.

By Nikos Roussanoglou

Workers in the state and private sector are to walk off the job on Wednesday, disrupting public services and some modes of transport on the first general strike of the year against austerity.

Kifissia-Piraeus electric railway (ISAP) employees on Wednesday attacked government plans to hire private ticket inspectors and allow ticket sales in supermarkets.

In a statement, the ISAP workers’ union said the provision, included in a multi-bill tabled in Parliament earlier this week, was aimed at “dismantling public urban transport services.”

A replacement bus service, X1, will run on the section of Athens’s Piraeus-Kifissia electric railway (ISAP) between Piraeus and Neo Faliro on Friday, tomorrow and Monday from 6 p.m. until the end of the service on each day due to works, ISAP officials said on Thursday.

A new smartcard system that will be installed on the public transport network in Athens will lead to passengers being charged according to the distance their journey covers, which will lead to some commuters paying less than they do now and others more.